Sports Editor:
Adam Jude
adamjude@dailyemerald.com
Assistant Sports Editor:
Jeff Smith
jeffsmith@dailyemerald.com
Friday, November 2, 2001
Photo Illustration
Thomas Patterson Emerald
Junior Carrie Zografos
has led the Oregon
cross country team in
every race this season.
■Junior Carrie Zografos has led
the Oregon harrier squad not
only with her running, but also
with her personality
By Chris Cabot
Oregon Daily Emerald
The women’s cross country team fell
short of expectations and had what red
shirt junior Carrie Zografos called a
“frustrating” season. However, Zografos
has maintained a positive outlook and
an ever-present smile throughout the
fall term.
Zografos, a psychology and Span
ish double-major, hails from Port
land, where she ran
300-meter hurdles at
Central Catholic
High. She spent the
first two years of her
collegiate career at
Colorado, and it was
there that she began
the transition to longer distance run
ning.
As a freshman, Zografos ran hurdles
for the Buffaloes track and field team,
but she began to see less improvement
than she wanted compared to the other
runners on the team. Her sophomore
year, Zografos made the move to middle
distances on the track and tried out for
the Colorado cross country team, a
squad with a highly touted reputation.
She made the team, but struggled to
keep pace with the top runners on the
squad.
“It was pretty easy that year actually
because I did whatever my coach told
me to do,” Zografos said. “When he said
to go run 10 miles at this pace, I’d just
do it and not really think about it. But I
was so far behind all those other girls.”
Zografos kept working, though, and
at the end of the season, when the top
seven runners had gone to nationals,
she won an open race which included
all the other Colorado runners ranking
her as the eighth runner on a team that
placed No. 8 nationally. Carrie credits
her win and her improvement through
out her sophomore campaign to Col
orado coach Mark Wetmore.
“My coach had a lot of faith in me
and put a lot of confidence in me so I
ran well,” she said.
Despite her progress at Colorado, Zo
grafos moved back to Oregon to be clos
er to home.
Last year for the Oregon cross coun
try team, Zografos ran as the No. 8 harri
Turn to Cross country, page 8A
Shaq, Smith make
debuts back at Mac
■Guard Shaquala Williams, who sat out last year with
an injury, and new coach Bev Smith, a former Oregon
standout, open their season tonight at McArthur Court
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
Finally.
After five months of anticipation and excitement, the
women’s basketball team will hit the hardwood at 5 p.m. to
day in the season’s first exhibition game against the Basket
ball Travelers at McArthur Court.
More importantly, though, Bev Smith will make her head
coaching debut, looking to lead the Ducks to their ninth
straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
“The expectations are very high, and we’re looking to fill
those expectations,” said Smith, the former Canadian nation
al team coach. “I think that one thing that is
really important is that we need to be the
best team we can be. Every day we step on
the practice floor and on the competitions
floor we have to be a little better each time.”
Tonight’s game will also mark the return of
Shaquala Williams, the 2000 Pacific-10 Confer
ence Player of the Year who missed all of last
season with a tom anterior cruciate ligament in
her left knee. Williams, a junior shooting guard, has not played at
Mac Court since March 17, 2000, when the Ducks lost to Alaba
ma-Birmingham in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
In preparation for this season — which would have been
her senior year if not for the injury — Williams played with
the national team in the World University Games, where she
helped the United States win a gold medal in China.
“It feels great to get back in the gym,” Williams said. “I’ve
worked hard all summer, and I feel like I’m in great shape.”
Shaq will probably be the only non-senior in Oregon’s start
ing lineup. In a guard-heavy formation, Edniesha Curry, a trans
fer from Cal State-Northridge, will take the point and three-point
specialist Jamie Craighead will, fittingly, take the No. 3 spot. For
ward Ndidi Unaka and center Alyssa Fredrick will likely round
out the starting five in the team’s first appearance of the year.
“We’re going to play an up-tempo game, not necessarily be
Turn to Basketball, page 8A
Oregon loses a heartbreaker to Cal, 3-1
■ Despite 45 kills by the ‘big three,’
Oregon falls to California in four,
fails to win first Pac-10 game
By Hank Hager
Oregon Daily Emerald
It can’t get much worse for the Ore
gon volleyball team.
Despite a' 10-point lead in game
three, the Ducks lost a four-game (30
21, 27-30, 30-28, 30-22) heartbreaker to
California on Thursday.
Tied 1-1 in the match and leading
21-14 late into the third game, the
Ducks (8-15 overall, 0-12 Pacific-10
Conference) stood confident in their
ability to gain a second-game win for
the first time in Pac-10 play. But the
Golden Bears (8-12, 3-9) had a different
idea of what was going to happen.
Consecutive kills
by California junior
Reena Pardiwala
gave the Bears what
would be an im
mense boost of confi
dence, and the men
tality that they could
come back. The two points would be
the first in what became a seven-point
run, enough to put them one point be
hind the Ducks.
A kill by Oregon junior Stephanie
Martin ended the run, and a California
error gave the Ducks breathing room at
23-20, but it was short-lived. Nine
points later, the Golden Bears caught
up to the Oregon women, with the
game tied at 26.
Tied at 27, junior Lindsay Closs em
phatically put the Ducks back on top,
but that would be the last point Oregon
would win in the game. A service error
by Closs and two service aces by Cal
sophomore Gabrielle Abernathy put
the Ducks away for good.
Adam Amato Emerald
Amy Reynolds (left), Alisa Nelson (center) and Diana Blank (16) react to a play during Oregon’s loss
to California. Despite their strong play, the Ducks fell to 0-12 in the Pac-10.
Oregon head coach Carl Ferreira said
game three was not the best Oregon
had played this season, but he was vi
sually perturbed by the team’s play.
“We almost played not to win,” he
said. “That was probably the biggest
disappointment. We just didn’t finish.”
Closs led the Ducks’ offensive out
put in the third game, leading the team
with five kills. Senior Monique Tobba
gi played strong in the game, backing
up Closs’ five kills with four of her
own. However, it wasn’t enough to get
the Ducks ahead on the scoreboard.
The Golden Bears’ uncanny knack
to return the Ducks’ attacks also
helped keep Cal in the game. At least
four times the Ducks seemed to have
a point, only to have Cal’s resiliency
stare them in the face and come
through. The Ducks were the impos
ing team in the beginning, but not in
the end.
“I thought the beginning of game
three was going to be the determining
factor for the match,” Ferreira said.
“The beginning of game three was ex
actly what we wanted in terms of in
creasing our play to the point of giving
yourself a chance to succeed. (But) lit
tle things make big differences, and
that one definitely got away from us.”
Game two was the one the Ducks
did win. But it wasn’t in the grandest
manner.
After matching points until the Bears
Turn to Volleyball, page 8A